Media Release Marine Conservation

AMCS statement on Pareto Phone data breach

August 29, 2023

You may be aware of a recent data breach suffered by Pareto Phone Pty Ltd (Pareto Phone), a third-party fundraising service provider that many charities use.

We wish to assure our supporters that our data and systems have not been impacted by this incident. 

AMCS does, from time to time, work with fundraising agencies to help support our vital work protecting Australia’s oceans and the threatened marine life that call them home.

We contracted Pareto Phone once, in 2015, to conduct a small pilot fundraising campaign but it did not continue beyond the pilot. Under the Australian Privacy Principles, organisations must take reasonable steps to destroy personal information data that is no longer required. Following the recent data breach, Pareto Phone has confirmed that it does not hold any data from AMCS. 

The third-party telemarketing providers we use follow the strictest data security measures. These measures include compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (the most rigorous data privacy law), encrypting customer data and storing it on secure serverless architecture with access controls in place. 

Data security is an ongoing process, and our providers continually assess and adapt security measures to stay ahead of evolving threats and comply with changing data protection regulations.

Should you have further concerns about your data safety with AMCS, please contact us [email protected]